DVD details for for
Baraka (1992) More at IMDb Pro »

Michel Hafner (22 November 2001):
Baraka (1992) has been reissued on DVD as a widescreen collector's edition. The first DVD was apparently rather poor. What about this one?
The film master used is a 70 mm element in near perfect condition, clean and steady.
Contrast and color rendition are very good. Sharpness is uneven and on average a bit disappointing for a 16:9 enhanced transfer from ultra sharp 70mm material.
The noise and grain level is pretty low most of the time, but some shots are somewhat noisy.
The weakest point are the video artifacts. There is edge enhancement that creates some haloes and ringing at times and there are noise reduction artifacts that make fine details flicker at times. Nothing major but not difficult to see on good equipment. The noise processing also reduces the sharpness.
Compression at a very high bit rate is very good.
Baraka is a stunning film with superb visuals. The good news is that this DVD does the film mostly justice and is very watchable on all kinds of displays. The quality of the 5.1 DD sound helps a lot. Nothing can replace the experience of seeing this film from a 70 mm print, but the DVD is not a bad substitute. Recommended.